Back story.

July 2004: I buy Nitto 555s for the front of my L. Good for at least, what 35,000 miles? I drive on them for about 7,000 miles untill I get deployed overseas.

January 2005: A few days before we ship out I order a Ground Force kit to lower my L. I will never see it in the box as I am alrady out of country when it gets delivered.

Early 2006 A monthe before I come home I have my neighbor take my truck and install the kit before I get home.

April 2006 - present. Drive another 7-10,000 miles on my truck. I start to notice a little bit of a pull. It gets worse and worse. I decide to have my truck re-aligned which I havent done since 2004 when I first got it. But unfortunatly other things take president. New brakes, new 555Rs for the back. I thought, it cant be that bad, it can wait one more week untill I came outside from work last week and saw this (Click for hi-res):





So on Monday I get to get an alignment and two new tires while the old ones, if properly maintained would still have at least another 15k on them.

31C

 

That sucks. You never felt it pulling to one side or anything?

 

When I first got my truck I did. So I took it to get aligned. They aligned it and said it was good to go and really didnt need one when I brought it in. After that I still noticed it so I just chalked it up as "normal". But in the last month or so it got worse and that is what raised my worries.

31C

 

Who did the alignment? I wouldn't take it back there. Find a reputable alignment shop and let them give it a whirl. A good alignment shop can take one look at that tire and tell exactly what's wrong. Looks like a negative camber issue.

http://www.desertrides.com/reference...rms/camber.gif

 

The problem is none of the reputable shops do 18" wheels. Not even the Ford deahership. Its so much fun to drop your truck off, have them take a look at it and say "No problem" Then they call you anywhere from several hours later to the next day and say "We can't do 18" wheels" The first place I took it I wasnt aware that special equipment was needed. But the two other times that happened I even asked them "Can you do 18 wheels?" And they all said "No problem" only to call back later.

31C

 

Sorry to here that man!!!!! Did I miss it or was the truck aligned after being lowered? Did you put in new cam bolts?

 

Man, that blows. Maybe a few L owners will stop by this thread to help you. The only thing I can think of is to try to get ahold of some regular 16" rims from a base model 01'-04' heritage F150. They have the 5x135mm bolt circle and 14mm offset, so I think they should fit your lug pattern. After you get it aligned with the 16's, put your 18's back on. Sorry if I'm not much help.

 

You're in California. I take mine to the local 'Big O' store but any tire outlet that also sells custom wheels should have the equipment necessary to deal with virtually any size wheel.

I have watched them do mine and the sensor device that attaches to the wheel is adjustable and looks to me like it will fit anything from a 13" wheel up through the monster 4x4 28's.

 

Just Tires (Goodyear owned) can also hande big wheels.

 

yea its pretty much manditory to get an alignment done after messing with the front suspension. i learned that the hard way also

 

Why didn't you align it after lowering it? You had it coming for not doing that.

 

Exactly. So hopefully I can save someone else the heartache by posting my stupidity. Its like the leason at the end of GI Joe.

31C

 

They way he's describing the pull, I'd say it's more of a toe issue. Camber shouldn't give a pull if everything else is right. If anything, it will make it more stable. You should see the camber I have dialed on mine, and I don't have wear like that, lol.

 

Maybe. I don't know. If it's just the drivers side wearing on the inside corner, you're problably right. I just took one look at it and my first thought was neg camber. A good shop will get it fixed right up.

 

Looks like camber to me. With 2 degrees, my insides are down to the cords long before getting to the wear bars.